Oakland: Police Stood Down As ‘Protesters’ Terrorized Drivers

Cops allowed Trayvon demonstrators to seize control of major street for three hours

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
July 15, 2013

One of the questions to emerge out of last night’s unrest in Oakland, where crowds protesting the George Zimmerman verdict turned violent and seized control of a major street for three hours, is why police withdrew from the area and allowed drivers to be terrorized.

According to a report by ABC 7[1], protesters had “complete control” of 14th and Broadway near Oakland City Hall and refused to let vehicles pass.

At about 8:30 p.m., police opened the intersection to traffic. But it quickly deteriorated when demonstrators surrounded frightened drivers who found themselves trapped. The crowd forced them to turn around.

Oakland police officers that had been near the corner retreated, leaving the helpless drivers without police protection. It’s unclear who gave that command.

Occupy Oakland is now calling on demonstrators to repeat the stunt tonight, while subtly encouraging violence by mentioning smashing courthouse windows and telling people to wear all black.

What was described in Oakland last night resembles to a lesser degree the scene below from the 1992 LA riots during which agitators attacked drivers and attempted to pull them out of their vehicles as police stood down.

During the Rodney King riots, police were ordered by their superiors to avoid attempting to quell the disorder so as not to escalate the cycle of violence.

“Critics say the police gave up when the riots erupted, letting big chunks of Los Angeles burn while looters and hoodlums ruled,” reports Blackisonline[6].

This “stand down” order could hardly have been justified in the context of reducing violence given that 53 people died during the riots and 2,000 were injured.

We hope that scenes such as those witnessed last night in Oakland and Los Angeles remain limited and that police don’t allow them to escalate by standing back and doing nothing, thereby encouraging other criminal elements to hijack the protests as an excuse for disorder and looting.

*********************

Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Infowars.com[7] and Prison Planet.com[8]. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a host for Infowars Nightly News.